Web.de Banks on Internet Telephony

[Berlin, GERMANY] The freemail provider WEB.DE AG, in Karlsruhe, Germany, started up its
technology and infrastructure today for nationwide Internet telephony.
WEB.DE is implementing Internet telephony using voice over IP (speech
transmission by way of an Internet protocol). This makes it possible to
make telephone calls over the Internet from any PC using the
conventional telephone network at the applicable local rate. WEB.DE AG
attained access to this technology through its involvement with the VoIP
Group, Miami, USA.

As its first application of this technology, WEB.DE AG is now offering
Internet telephony as an additional service in its WEB.DE FreeMail
Unified Messaging Service. The integration is being implemented as a
service financed through advertising, which is marketed with a gross
margin of around 60 percent with the “pay per click” method. WEB.DE FreeMail
belongs to Germany’s large Unified Messaging Service, and according to
the company it already has over 2.1 million users.

Additional applications are already being planned, such as integration
in the area of B2B communication by way of the WEB.DE subsidiary
Workways GmbH, and expansion to include international calls as well.